Tottenham & Juventus among sides tracking Stuttgart's Nicolas Gonzalez
By Tom Gott
Tottenham Hotspur and Juventus are among the sides tracking Stuttgart winger Nicolas Gonzalez, who is also on the radar of a number of others.
Despite struggling with injuries this season, the 22-year-old has managed five goals and two assists in ten appearances for the newly-promoted side.
Perhaps his finest performance of the season came in Sunday's 4-1 win over Augsburg, in which Gonzalez fired in a goal and laid on an assist while playing as a central striker, and The Athletic's David Ornstein notes that a handful of Europe's top sides are keen on the Argentine.
At the front of the queue are Spurs and Juventus, both of whom have held talks over a possible move for Gonzalez, although negotiations are still at a very early stage and it is not yet clear whether either side will actually advance with their interest.
It's expected that both teams will wait to see about any potential outgoings before they consider a move for Gonzalez. For Spurs, the likes of Dele Alli and Gedson Fernandes are facing uncertain futures, while Juventus may look to offload Federico Bernardeschi first.
Leeds United were also credited with an interest in Gonzalez last summer, but there have been no fresh talks since Marcelo Bielsa's side declined to pull the trigger on a move.
It's not hard to see why Gonzalez has attracted all this interest. The versatile forward managed 14 goals and three assists last season to fire Stuttgart back to the top flight, and now he is proving that he can hang in the Bundesliga as well.
That form has seen Stuttgart slap a price tag of close to £27m on Gonzalez's head, with the German side keen to ensure they are compensated if they lose one of their brightest stars.
Stuttgart would prefer to hold on to Gonzalez until the end of the season as they seek to cement their place in the Bundesliga, and it's thought that most of the Argentine's suitors would also rather wait while they figure out their budgets for the summer window.
Should Gonzalez remain, expect the interest in him to grow, and there may also be more suitors for the rest of Stuttgart's young attackers.
Pellegrino Matarazzo has built an incredibly young squad from back to front, and the likes of 22-year-old midfielder Orel Mangala and 21-year-old forward Silas Wamangituka have also attracted interest from a whole host of European sides in the past.